Former Punjab deputy chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday castigated the Punjab government for trying to take credit for development works which had been approved by the SAD-BJP government.
In a statement here, the SAD president said it was unfortunate that the State government including the chief minister and the local Government minister were trying to take credit by distributing cheques for projects which had not only been approved by the previous SAD-BJP government but for whom even Rs 567 crore had been released earlier.
He said an attempt was made on Friday to hoodwink the people of Abohar by re-inaugurating an ongoing drinking water supply and sewer scheme. He said this scheme had been approved by the SAD-BJP government. “Even partial money for the same was released during SAD-BJP rule following which the work was allocated and even started by the contractor”, he added.
Stating that this could be an attempt to befool the people and divert attention from the series of anti-people steps taken by the Congress government after the Gurdaspur bypoll including hike in power tariff and closure of 800 primary schools, Badal said it would be better if the Congress government submitted a report card on its performance in the last seven months instead of indulging in such tomfoolery.
Badal said both the Amrut scheme and the Smart City project were initiated by the NDA government during SAD-BJP tenure. He said while various water supply and sewerage schemes had been initiated under Amrut including those in Abohar, various projects had been initiated under the Smart City scheme for which also the Congress government was trying to take credit.